Russell Allphin is serving an LDS Mission in Salta Argentina. This is a collection of his experiences and letters home.

Monday, April 1, 2013

...Spun From The Beards Of Shellfish

Family!

Oh good
sakes kids! How’ve you been? It’s great to hear the week was all good. Sorry
about the shoulder dad but I'm glad that Easter was all terrific and frolicsome
and that Molly had a ball.

Here Easter
wasn’t as hoppin' (Easter bunny pun intended). Everyone here buys giant
expensive chocolate eggs for Easter and watches Mel Gibson’s Passion of the
Christ. Oh, and the Ten Commandments, of course (the best part being when the
pharaoh asks Moses (Charlton Heston's) to hand over his staff and he replies
"Not until they pry it from my cold, dead hands!" Good times. There
were little processions here. Like, for example, on Good Friday a man goes
around town carrying a giant cross and a bunch of people follow him singing
songs. It’s quite the hit.

On Tuesday
we spent the day with Elder Murray from Oklahoma.
He’s got about 3 weeks here in the mission and he’s a companion of one of the
elders in our district who asked if we could watch Elder Murray while he went
to Salta to do
papers. So we stayed with him and it was fun. It made me so grateful I am where
I am now in the mish. I remember the first bit. Man, it was tough. It was really
great to work with him.

When we
dropped him off the next day, his comp (Elder Solomon) asked if we could help
with their "mini MTC". We agreed and the next day, on Friday, we
headed back to Ledesma. Elder Solomon needed to do a baptismal interview in San
Pedro so my comp went with him and I stayed there with Elder Murray. Elder
Solomon said that the missionary’s part of the mini MTC thing was that we would
speak for like 5 minutes.So we were only
expecting to talk for 5 minutes and be done. When we got to the chapel it was just
me and Murray in front of an audience of like 30 youth.The Y.M´s director got up and said, "Ok,
welcome to the mini MTC, thank you for coming. Now we’ll turn the time over to
the elders.” I forgot to ask what subject we were speaking on so I whispered to
the leader "What should we speak on?" He said "Idk but I gotta
go. You guys will run this show until one in the afternoon...bye!" and he
left...It was 8 in the morning and the guy just ditched us. Murray doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish, I
have no topic to go on, and we’ve just been abandoned in front of a big group
of youth.

So with
that, we commenced the mini MTC—out of nothing. I was just trying to think of
the things we did in the MTC: Practices, talking about our purpose as
missionaries, etc. I got to teach the whole thing and it was actually way, way,
way, way super-fun cool. The kids really got into it and I felt really great
and comfortable teaching them. After all that, the leader came back at around
one o’clock and told me, "Thanks for running the thing Elder, could you
also direct the choir?"I said,
"There’s a choir?" The guy responds,
“Of course...but it hasn’t been formed yet and the youth must be in the choir. They are going to sing Called to Serve...And
the district president is coming in just awhile to see it." Ahhhh!! So we
fashioned up a choir, made parts, practiced, etc. It was like being a regular Sue
Sylvester but without the whole “Glee” thing. The district president came and
that’s when things all the sudden started to get organized.

They had a
little devotional that night and while I was there I saw a kid come in with the
district president. It was Elder Rolleli, my mini missionary from Aeroparque.
We hugged and talked and laughed and smoked (Ha! April fools). But we talked
and he’s been mini-missioning for like a month in Tucumán and Salta, etc. His mission call got lost in the
mail so he’s still waiting for it but I get to see him next week for General
conference.

The mini
MTC was really fun while it lasted, just horribly planned, but it was fun. My
comp came back from San Pedro a short while after and we headed back to Yuto.
While I was there I got my package from Elder Solomon—the one with the SD card
and candy. Thank you so, so much—much obliged.

Yuto is
going well. I’m best buds with this member kid named Elias who’s going on a
mish soon. He’s awesome. He only loves British and Scottish bands like Travis, Foals,
etc.He works at a store making facturas
(pastries) with his dad and they always leave us a bag of them in the window
every morning. It’s a good life.

The comp is
getting easier but rough at the same time. The kid is nice but just SO INSANLEY
PRIDEFUL and has his own schedule and requires more than a little patience. I’m
really trying to be the best I can with him. It’s just sometimes he needs a
smack in the head. Pray for the both of us. We have some investigators getting
close to baptism. This one girl named Paula is possible. She went on vacation
to Jujuy Centro and so we are just waiting for her return and interview. More
to come on that. Pray for her. Well, that just bout it....questions snoitseuq?

I have
heard from my missionary mom group that they are going to start sending
missionaries into the country with a travel visa which will allow them to stay
for 3 – 6 months while they get their real visa.Have you heard anything about that?

No but that
sounds cool. Man, I really want to be a papi. I was told by pres that I was
gonna train in Aeroparque but nope no missionaries. I know if I just do my work
then I’m doing my purpose but I really want to do something like train. I just
kinda feel bummish about that. I shouldn’t though.

What are
the members like there?Who is your
branch president?

They are
really good nice folk...A like skippity but nice people. The president is Ron Togerson.
He’s a fun guy-- cool guy.

Well famz,
that’s about it. I love you guys so much and am so grateful for all you do; you’re
all amazing. Well, it’s that time—the World of Warcraft kids are starting to ooze
in and that’s when I start to lose my mind. I love you guys so much. Pray that
I can be chill this week. Have a great week. I love you, its all good.